Mighty Ducks: Animated Series

Author's note: This came out of left field. I made an OC and one thing led to another and I started writing this before I knew what was happening. It was like an out of body experience, I couldn't stop myself. I do not own Mighty Ducks. I'm such trash.

Rhynie

Bits and pieces of that day came back every other time he dreamed. He would have done anything to trade places with her in an instant. He would have given in anything to have her back in her arms, her head resting against his chest—her slender fingers intertwined with his. He would give up hockey to have her back alive.

To Duke, Rhynie was his whole world. If there had ever come a day when she wanted to stop thieving and live a normal life. He would have dropped everything for her. The one eyed duck would marry her and give her a family, he would happily live a normal, boring life with her. His buddies called him a wimp for being a slave for Rhynie's captivating blue eyes. He loved the way her hips swayed when she walked, how her words melted with her sultry voice and how her short brown hair fluttered in the wind. Every time she said his name, even when she was frustrated or angry, he fell deeper into her spell.

That dream of being with her forever came to a tragic end. After Draganous conquered all of Puck World, Duke and his merry band of thieves turned their feathers over and helped their people. They stole food, weapons, gathered intelligence for the military and occasionally blew up a droid armory.

"Duke, are you almost done?" Rhynie half asked and half ordered.

Duke chuckled, "You know, I'm having difficult time remembering who the leader is these days."

"Well if you hurried up, I'd let you remind me." Rhynie winked up at him.

Duke slid down the latter, wrapped an arm around the small of her back and brought her in for a quick, but passionate kiss, "I might take you up on that offer, sweet heart."

Rhynie pushed away from him with a finger on his chest and a teasing smile pulling him along. She held up the keys to the getaway vehicle. Duke reached for them, but Rhynie pulled away. He hooked his arm around her once more and while she was distracted with his tongue down her throat Duke swiped the keys out of her hand.

"You are so asking for it." He muttered before kissing her quickly, "We need to go, sweet heart."

"You're the one that's taking forever." Rhynie joked, reading her gun. She never liked guns; they weren't as elegant as her throwing knives. But they were efficient and the ammo was cheaper than her blades.

Duke led the way and just as they were about to cross the threshold, Rhynie heard a droid powering to life. Over her shoulder she saw the remains of the metal machine point its blaster at Duke.

"Look out!" Rhynie shouted as she pushed the male duck to the ground. Duke immediately shot up and used Rhynie's gun to take down the metal monster. He cheered loudly, turned around to share the minor victory with her, but he dropped the gun in shock.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, Rhynie!" Duke gently turned her over. Blood was seeping through cracks of her fingers, she struggled breathe and could barely keep her eyes open. He clutched her face, shaking it until her pained stayed opened.

"I'm gonna get you out of here." Duke attempted to pick her up, but a mangled cry escaped from her clenched teeth, "Or maybe not."

He cradled her body close to him and cringed when he moved her hand away to see the wound. She was losing too much blood, too fast. He knew Rhynie wouldn't last much longer if he didn't get her back to their vehicle.

"Duke," her voice cracked, her hand gently caressed his cheek, "The bombs."

He cursed loudly. He completely forgot about them, they probably had five minutes to escape the building, but not the blast zone. Especially if Duke had to carry her out.

"You need to go." Rhynie swallowed hard.

Duke shook his head violently, "I'm not leaving you."

"You don't have a choice." Rhynie clutched her necklace, snapped it off and snaked it into the middle of his palm.

Tears began to form in the male mallard's eye, "I can't leave you Rhynie."

"You never will." She leaned forward and kissed his cheek, "Get out of here Duke."

He knew she was right, she always was. With the little time he had, Duke hugged her upper body tightly before laying her flat on the ground. He pushed her hair out of her face and kissed her forehead—his brow furrowed with frustration as he held back his tears.

"I love you Rhynie."

Rhynie weakly smiled, "I love you too."

Duke lingered for a moment before he got to his feet and sprinted as fast as his legs and lungs would carry him. He nearly collapsed when he arrived at the car; his entire body was humming with adrenaline when the building exploded. Duke watched with a dreadful eye, he fell to his knees, staring down at the necklace that Rhynie gave him. The pink stone was from their first heist together, the stone took a hit from a laser bullet—breaking a piece off—saving Duke from possibly dying. He gave it to her when he finally gathered the courage to ask her to be his. He clenched it tightly and held it close to his heart.

A few months later Canard located the recently recluse thief, in a drunken stupor and smelling like a mixture of stale alcohol and sweat.

"Who are you?" Duke's words slurred as his hand blocked his eye from the sudden exposure to light.

"My name is Canard, Duke L'Orange. I've come to recruit you."

"Whatever it's for, I'm not interested." The drunken duck waved him off and went in search for a new beverage. Canard followed him through the littered house and slammed the fridge's door shut before Duke could grab anything. He forcefully turned the disheveled duck to face him, making the fridge shake in the process.

"I know about Rhynie, Duke. I know what happened to her." Canard stated sympathetically. The thumbed the pink stone around Duke's head. "One of your buddies told me all about you and her. "

Duke shoved his hand away and jabbed his finger into Canard's chest. "You don't know a damn thing."

"Rhynie Drake, second in command of the Brotherhood of the Blades, the love of your life, died tragically a few months ago while blowing up one of Draganous's armories. It's only been a few weeks since you've gone into hiding. Rhynie would kick your ass for turning into this."

Duke tore away from Canard's glare and staggered back into the living room, lazily falling onto the couch. Canard shook his head, realizing that Mallory was right about the ex-con. He thought giving Duke a new purpose would light a fire under his ass. Canard stopped at the door and glanced at the sorry site of Duke eyeing the empty bottle.

"Do what you want with your life Duke. You can stay here, get drunk and feel sorry for yourself. Or you can honor Rhynie's memory by fighting for the rebellion and bring some of her love into our world. It's your choice."

Duke sat there for a few minutes after Canard closed the door behind him. He weighed his options and debated internally on how long he could survive on just alcohol. He cupped Rhynie's necklace, his mind wondering into the past. Even though she was an outlaw, Rhynie did whatever she could to help those in need. Her life was contradictory and she loved it until her death. He knew very well what Rhynie would do to him if she saw him living like this. She'd probably kill him, dump him for being a loser and go out with a guy like Canard.

Duke stood suddenly and slamming open his door. Canard was leaning against the chipped blue wall with his arms crossed over his chest and smiling smugly towards the still drunk thief.

"Have you made your decision?"

"I have." Duke answered as confidently as he could without slurring his words. "I'll join for Rhynie."

Canard held his hand out; in turn Duke squeezed it, "Glad to have you. Now, let's get you cleaned up."

Now a year later Duke wasn't just fighting for Rhynie, now he had to fight for Canard. He hoped their war with Draganous would end soon, so he and his team could return to their world. He didn't know what he would do, Mallory would probably try to talk him into joining the military so his skills wouldn't go to waste. He thought about getting his old gang back together, to go back to the good ol' thieving days, but inside his heart he knew it wouldn't be the same.

"There's the Dukster!" Nosedive greeted the sleepy bird in his usual hyper active manner. "Eat your breakfast, buddy. You're gonna need it for the new killer plays Wing has come up with."

Duke grumbled and ran a hand through his hair, "Can you not Nosedive?"

"What's wrong, buddy? You look a little sick. Did you have a bad dream?" Nosedive joked, snickering at what kind of nightmare his friend could have.

Duke sat at the island, in the kitchen, and rubbed his face with his hands. "I didn't have a nightmare, it was a memory. A really bad one."

The vague explanation only peeked the hot shot's attention even more, but he noticed the pain in his teammate's expression. Nosedive put the cereal box away before he joined the ex con at the table.

"How bad?" He whispered.

"I don't want to talk about it." Duke groaned.

Nosedive pouted, he wanted to know more about his friend, Duke only revealed a little about himself and that made the team distrust him a little at times.

Duke sighed, "Fine. If you must know and clearly you must. It was about a girl."

"How is that bad?" Nosedive paused, "Did she use a whip?"

"What? No!" Duke blushed, "She was my partner, the love of my life and she died months before Canard recruited me."

"Oh." Nosedive's gaze fell to the surface of the table, "I'm sorry to hear that man. What was her name?"

"Rhynie." When Duke spoke her name it was still full of love, but a deep sadness had taken root—he missed her so much. He had his days when he just stayed in his room to agonize over the dull ache in his chest. "You two probably would have gotten along pretty well."

"Yea, how?"

"She was a little bit of a prankster and cared a lot about us, our people. Especially the kids. She was passionate about the things she did, even if they didn't make sense." Duke left out the intimate parts of her, he wanted to keep those a secret for as long as he could. "Rhynie was always serious during a fight and would put her own life in danger to save another."

"Is that how she died?" Nosedive asked quietly, not really sure if he should ask.

Duke nodded numbly, "She died protecting me."

Nosedive gripped his buddy's shoulder, "That's rough buddy."

"I had to leave her there, Nosedive. She didn't give me a choice and before I could think of going back to get her the armory exploded. She was stubborn until the very end."

"Stubborn chicks are hot." Nosedive said, absent mindedly thinking about Mallory. Duke had to agree with his friend on that, Rhynie was incredibly adorable when she was being too stubborn to ask for help.

Nosedive elbowed Duke in the ribs and wiggled his brow. "So what kind of blade did she use?" He knew the basics of Duke's old gang, that each of his members wielded a different type of blade.

"Throwing knives. She could hit a target with her eyes closed and no one could beat her at darts. She never missed."

"How'd you meet?" Nosedive asked, resting his blonde head in his propped up arm. He was a sucker for these types of stories, he would occasionally ask his parents how they met until he had it memorized.

Before Duke could share the embarrassing story, the intruder alarm echoed annoyingly throughout the base. The two ducks sprang into action, meeting everyone by Drake One with their weapons drawn and aimed at the slowly appearing green light.

"Who's the party crasher?" Nosedive asked, "My money is on Chameleon."

The silhouette came into focus and slowly Duke lowered his saber until it slid from his grasp completely. Dropping to the floor with a loud clang.

"Duke the enemy isn't the floor." Mallory said angrily, her intense glare dropped when she saw her comrade's shocked expression. "What's wrong?"

"It's can't be." Duke's perplexed expression threw everyone off guard, the normal stoic Duke was gone—he almost looked afraid.

The figure before them was finally clear, a female duck who was an inch or two shorter than Duke. Her short brown hair was a curly mess, as if she was fighting someone before teleporting into the pond. Duke wasn't one hundred percent positive that it was her until her dazzling blue eyes locked onto his.

Nosedive shook his friend's shoulder, "You alright man? You look like you've seen a…"

"Rhynie?" Duke didn't mean to shout her name, but the not-so-dead duck collapsed into his arm before she hit the ground.

"Rhynie? As in your dead girlfriend, Rhynie? The one we were just talking about?" Nosedive asked, starting to freak out, "Zombies do exist."

Wildwing kneeled next to his comrade as he cradled her close to his chest. The leader looked over the girl with his mask, confirming that she wasn't Chameleon in disguise and that she was, in did, alive. He noticed how frozen Duke was, the color draining from his face as he went into shock. Tanya was beside Wildwing, checking her girl's vitals.

"Do zombies normally have a pulse?" Tanya asked over her shoulder towards Nosedive.

"Uh no, no they don't." The little brother powered down his weapon and tucked it away. "Now what?"

"Now we take her and Duke to the infirmary." Wildwing commanded, he gripped his friend's shoulder, helped him and made sure that he didn't collapse with the girl in his arms.

Author's note: So I'm not sure how I feel about this.